Tag Archives: cryptobiology

Melanoplus

This was prompted by a summer birding walk a couple of years ago, in which my wife and I spotted and identified our first grasshopper sparrow:

The sparrow grasshopper‘s name derives from its mottled brown-tan coloration and prodigious size – typically 14-18cm long at full growth. Genetic analysis reveals it to be an Awakened subspecies of the differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis). It is believed to reach this size through consumption of Awakened plant life, which is its preferred (but not exclusive) diet. Its size makes it a target for predators that do not normally eat grasshoppers, including domestic cats and dogs, several species of raptor, and hoop snakes.

The sparrow grasshopper is generally harmless to humans. However, when startled, it takes flight briefly, and swarms along highways have been responsible for several major traffic accidents as they have obscured drivers’ vision and confused vehicular sensors. As a dual-natured creature, the sparrow grasshopper has an astral presence, and swarms are vivid on the astral plane.

Daucus

Occasionally, my wife and I go off on worldbuilding tangents that result in new fictitious species. This has previously resulted in the ghost plum and the spider peacock. Another time, someone’s Reddit handle inspired discussion of the floating ghost carrot.

Well, it’s not really a carrot. Nor does it float. It’s actually a subspecies of ginseng that can temporarily activate latent telekinetic powers.

The problem is that while a lot of people would like to have latent telekinetic powers, very few actually do. Because some of the interested-but-without are wealthy, powerful, and unscrupulous (but I repeat myself), this has resulted in a significant off-the-books genetic research project to identify the source of latent telekinesis. The results have been… questionable science, at best. And some of those results point to specific organs as the source of said latent telekinesis. Which has, in turn, resulted in a growing black market trade in organs stolen from latent telekinetic persons for transplant.

Phasianidae

Occasionally, my brain does strange things with syntax. Such was the case when I recently became aware of the peacock spider. If we have peacock spiders, I asked, why can’t we have spider peacocks?

So in my headcanon, the spider peacock is now a thing in the 7th Sea game setting.

It started out as a Montaigne attempt to breed a mute peafowl that would be decorative without disrupting garden parties with its shrieks. The result wasn’t a mute bird, but rather one with raspy, rattling vocalizations – sounding, quite frankly, like a woman being strangled rather than one being knifed. As if that weren’t enough, the breed’s plumage lost much of its coloration, becoming silvery grey and the dark red-brown of dried blood. This might have been the end of the experiment if not for the elaborate patterns on the fowl’s tailfeathers, which resembled unique, intricate spiderwebs when raised in full display.

While a few eccentric Montaigne do still keep flocks of these “spider peacocks,” the primary market for the breed is, unsurprisingly, Vodacce. There, they are cherished pets, allowed to freely roam their owners’ estates. Some Vodacce believe that spider peacocks also can sense when a sorte strega tugs the strands of Fate in their vicinity, and that their ubiquity in certain nobles’ presence is more than simple ornamentation or ostentation.

Meihua

From a tangent during character development for an old duet Shadowrun game:

The ghost plum is an Awakened variety of Prunus mume (Chinese plum) found mainly in China’s Yunnan region. The tree is similar to its unAwakened parent, but the fruit is an exceptionally pale lavender.

If consumed raw by an unAwakened metahuman, the fruit has a chance to bestow temporary and unpredictable astral sight. This phenomenon is more common in areas with high background counts related to large-scale or traumatic deaths. Awakened characters are largely unaffected, though a few report difficulty casting health spells. Statistical evidence suggests that frequent consumption may make subjects more susceptible to HMHVV.

Ghost plum is more commonly distilled into liquor. The resulting ghost plum wine provides a more predictable effect, less prone to “bad trips” – albeit with a greater statistical correlation to HMHVV infection rates. It is popular in death-fixated youth cultures around the Pacific Rim. It’s also a ritual component for practices related to several death-aligned totem spirits.